great taste. mmm... [ male announcer ] sounds good. it's amazing what soup can do. good evening. as the big day draws near, it's back with an election special, why women matter. this tuesday we will be the deciding factor at the polls. our bodies have been political terrain all year. and we are running, running for our rights, running for our lives, and running for office. for all of my sisters out there, the next hour is all about us. it's ladies night. good evening. i'm melissa harris-perry. i'm kog to you from our studio in democracy plaza right here in new york city. the last time we were here, not here, that was this morning, but here on the cusp of an election,

we reached the culmination of an extraordinary year. not because our country was about to elect the first african-american president. we must remember 2008 was a year a woman almost won the democratic nom face for president of the united states. and though some of us may want to for get sarah palin her place as the first ever woman in the vp slot on the republican ticket represents another historic milestone for women that year. in 2008 nancy pelosi was making history as the first woman to serve as speaker of the house. four women, 2008 felt like a moment. i mean, president obama may have been the reason that there was no president hillary clinton, but he was also the reason that the united states has been repped on the world stage for the past four years by secretary of state hillary clinton. and president obama nominated elaine that kagan and sonya sotomayor to the supreme court. one-third of the judicial seats in the highest court of the land are occupied by women. and it was all made possible because of the way women were

most politically potent in 2008, at the ballot box. in 2008 then senator obama won a decisive victory against john mccain among women by a whopping 13-point margin. among men, by a shriver. just a single point. there seemed there was no stopping women's political momentum until we ran smack-dab into 2010. and the tea party poured into congress. there wasn't just a full stop but more like a full reversal in women's political prospects. the 2010 mid-term year was the first time in more than 30 years that women not only failed to gain seats but actually lost seats in the house of representatives. the tea party's ideological take over of congress also brought with it a regressive social agenda, wrapped inside a trojan horse of economic reform that has left us where we find ourselves today, facing an unprecedented legislative erosion of reproductive rights at the state and federal level.

we find ourselves almost unable to go a week without women being treated like children who can't be trusted to make sound decisions about our own lives and bodies. most recently, the misinformed manplaining about rape, health, and abortion. >> life is a gift from god, and i think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that god intended to happen. >> there's no such exception as life of the mother. health of the mother has been -- has become a tool for abortions any time under any reason. >> if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> now, though the verbal attacks are only the most noticeable of the assaults against women's bodies, far more damaging are the policy punches that you don't even see. 2011 was a record-breaking year for attacks against reproductive rights with 127 abortion

restrictions approved and 38 enacted by this time last year. add to that number the 76 abortion restrictions approved and 9 enacted in states across the country so far in 2012. we have seen reproductive rights nearly eliminated in the state of mississippi. and virginia's legislators attempted to enact what amounts to a state sensed sexually assaulted with trans vaginal ultrasounds. and violence against women act being held hostage by republican lawmakers to use as a legislative bargaining chip, if there was any one picture that fully encapsulated the absurdity of men speaking for and about women in 2012, it must be this. darrell issa's panel of five men testifying on a hearing about insurers and employers providing coverage for contraception. more on that in a moment, but as we move into the finish line in this race, mitt romney may be moving to the middle but he is carrying with him a social agenda for women that swings so

far to the right he barely is on the track. and according to recent poll, almost half of the elections most crucial, women voters, are running right behind him. you see, a "usa today" gallop poll found that governor romney pulled within one point of president obama among women who are likely voters in battleground states spop when you look even closer at the supposed coalition of women supporting president obama you find that they're not necessarily coalescing and their gender. in 2008 president obama's largest base of supporters were african-american women. his supporters were also latin thats, young women, same-same-sex loving women, women who have travelled the many roads that lead to the intersection where our identities meet. what matters most is that women show up for ourselves because, as we've seen over the last year, if we don't, there are those who will be happy to show up for us. the importance of showing up even when the door gets slammed in your face wasn't lost on the

woman who is with me today. she is a face who was missing from that congressional hearing, sandra fluk, women's health care advocate and graduate from georgetown university. she joins me with karen finney, msnbc political analyst, columnist for "the hill" and victoria, nbc latino contributor, fellow at the lbj school at the university of texas and director of communication for latino divisions, and joy reid, msnbc contributor and managing editor for "the gri.com." senator, let me ask you, were you surprised to find yourself in the middle of the 2012 election cycle in the this way? >> yes, it was definitely not what i had planned for 2012. >> you had other things on your mind. >> i did. >> talk to me, at the point in which you made the decision to go and testify before congress, it's a big moment for a young woman, what were your policy thoughts at that point? >> i was really concerned about what we were seeing in the national conversation at that point about the affordable care

act, contraception, specifically, we were learning a lot about religious liberty but we weren't hearing about women and we weren't hearing about women's lives, we certainly weren't hearing about students who are most effected, perhaps, by this policy. so that was recally where our focus was on students on trying to broaden the conversation and have it be about the women who will be i'm pa impacted by that. >> your story, it's the moment when you are attacked and you are attacked by conservative talk show host rush limbaugh, people say, wait a minute, this has gone beyond a difference of opinion, this is an attack on a young woman. you start to see women galvanizing around that no matter what their policy positions. when i look at the polls, haven't we lost that just that quickly, it goes from being just about you instead of being about all of us? >> well, i think that what that symbolizes is that this is not a fight that is easily won. this is a long-term effort that we are going to have to continue

to engage in to create broad social change and to really eliminate masogony from our culture. if you look at unmarried women in the likely voters unmarried in the battleground states, there's a 25-point gender gap among those women. those are young women and they are the future of the electorate and they are going to make a difference. >> this point, exactly, when you take apart the women's numbers it looked like there are groups of women, again, at the intersectional identities who absolutely get it and others who don't. is it shocking for you, i mean, you were there in 2008. i fooeel like, okay, maybe we didn't get a woman president but we are on our way and where we are now. >> i think that's what was part of what was so wonderful this last year and the conversation. i'm not sure i buy into the gallup numbers. it's not just what happened with sandra. this is where the republicans completely miscalculated. it was the susan g. komen stuff where women said, time-out.

this is our health. this is not for politics. also, the tone and tenor and lack of respect and the nature of the conversation that was happening, not just at the federal level but at the state level saying, you know those shifty women, they'll use rape as a loophole if we let them. i think women were really offended and felt like, wait a second, if you can't trust me to make these decisions how do you know you really trust me as secretary of state or as a ceo. i actually think that women have -- look at the waitress moms the president has a huge advantage because for women these issues, we're integrated. it's all integrated. it's economic, it's social, it's our civil rights. i think women take a different view. as sandra was saying, though, there is that gap between married women and what i prefer to say as unmarried women other than single women. some of us are a little older and not married. there's 52 million unmarried women. they break overwhelmingly for president obama. so i do think that in these broader numbers, some of those distinctions get lost and most important group for president

obama, black women voted for him. >> right, who are the single largest group in terms of turnout in 2008. victoria, i was wondering a little bit about this idea of what does it take to create a multi-racial cross class, close enter generational women's coalition? on the one hand, we're not all the same. having ovaries or at one point having ovaries, not even get spoog the biology of it all. but that alone doesn't give you shared political interests, but it is sometimes surprising to see how different those opinions are depending on what sort of woman we're talking about. >> absolutely. speaking in terms of the latino electorate, we know that a lot of latinos are catholics. among k among catholicism is where we see a break against abortion. this is where we need to think about women's issues at large. we do care about reproductive rights. that is one base of coordination but also the economy because women of color were the hardest hit during this recession. and we need to reach out to color in terms of latinos in

particular, also immigration. so in terms of reaching the women, getting the women's vote, it's not just about the ovaries. it's about immigration, it's about civil rights, it's about the economy, it's about all of these different issues and bundling it to the. you can't win on one issue alone. >> i feel like we could show you political science data saying women tend to do better when a democrat is in office on all of these things. are the democrats making the argument they need to make to these broad group of women? >> republicans had a very specific strategy this year which is try to force white voters, including married white women, to really choose more than ethnicity and more their class and not pay attention to issues that would be considered women's issues. but what i think is interesting is how few republican women have been out front. you showed all those clips. very few republican women, including white republican women, had been willing to do the vanguard for these issues about gender. specifically about women. and they haven't been able to

sort of create a coalition of republican women who will argue this. i think they're even offended by it. the republicans have been successful at least in cleving off a certain percentage of married women. but i question whether or not those polls are going to be sort of played out on election day the same way. i think a lot of women privately, including republican women, are deeply offended by the say sandra was treated by rush limbaugh. >> the whole foods moms who fiscally may go with romney but they think about their daughters and they say the hard turn to the right and maybe they're going to cross that line. >> sandra, you started your year thinking it was just going to a congressle testimony, as big as that was. you ended up at the dnc. before we go to our first break, tell me, if there was sort of one thing that you wanted to say to women voters in this moment, even beyond the issue of which presidential candidate, what is it that you see as that sort of tu chur thing that women voters ought to be thinking about? >> that it's time to make our voices heard. make our voices heard this tuesday and make our voices heard in increasingly running

for office after this tuesday. because right now i'm focused on what comes next. i'm focused on what we owe women in this country after we talked so much about them this election cycle. it's time to deliver on their concerns in the next few years. >> absolutely. so, thank you so much for joining us tonight. you know we have lots of fun playing around with different names for the show today. it's why women matter, which i think is what you articulated. i wanted women on top or ladies choice or that said, sandra fluke, thank you so much for being here. and rest are staying for more. up next, the body politic and why women and no one else must be the deciders about our own bodies. ♪

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you're watching a specialed addition of mrp. we're right here at rockefeller center in new york city. this is where we will have our election night coverage. speaking of the election, let's be clear. concern about reproductive rights and access is not a distraction from real issues. women's health, education aal opportunities, and economic equality are directly related to unfettered safe access to birth control and abortion. in countries where women control their own fertility, they are more educated, less poor, and more likely to be engaged politically. but mitt romney prefer that supreme court kol women's choices. he would like to see rowe v. wade overturned. president obama, on the other hand, has never waivered in his staunch assertion that women can

be trusted to make their own decisio decisions. joining me on my panel here is author of "big girls don't cry." first, i want to bring in my very special guest from oakland, california, democratic senator barbara boxer. senator, it is so good for you to join us this evening. thank you. >> i'm delighted. just delighted. >> senator boxer, talk to me a bit about what we saw happen in 2008 on the one hand sort of women showing up in an amazing way as secretary of state clinton has said, putting all of those cracks in the glass ceiling and then rolling back right there in congress by 2010. what do we do to get our voices back? >> well, i believe we're going to have our voices back on election day. i really believe that the women are going to break for barack obama. and, you know, it isn't like these issues are hard to follow. we look at the republican platform and what does it say? it says that no abortion, no

abortion, you're a criminal if you get an abortion, even in cases of rape and insiscest. the reason i po cuss on rape is how outrageous it is, melissa. it is a crime. it's such a vicious crime in half the states there no limitation. if there's dna found 10, 20 later, you go after the perpetrator. i think women get it. mitt romney didn't lift a finger to change that platform. he said he would be delighted to sign a bill that overturns rowe v. wade. he wants to get rid of planned parenthood. he's standing by richard murdoch who basically says somehow god is involved in a rape. >> right. >> i just think women will come home to the democrats on election day. >> so, senator boxer, let me ask you this, because the most lasting decision a president makes, the one that follows long after he or she is out of office are those appointments to the

supreme court. >> right. >> when we expect given the age of some of our justices that the next president, whether it's a re-elected president obama or, goodness help us, a president romney will get to make at least one, possibly two, nominations to this court. you're in the senate. what can folks in the senate do if you are, in fact, faced with someone who would overturn row v. wade? >> let me just say i'm a believer that we're going to win this election. i honestly don't want to go down that path of a romney president si. i can't picture it in my mind. i don't want to. >> me, neither. >> i'll tell you the reason why. everything is on the line. if you're an older woman, medicare is on the line, or a man. but mostly women are on medicare. they want to end it as we know it, turn it into a voucher system. imagine an 80-year-old man or woman having to go hunt for insurance with a voucher. this is what they want to do.

i want to say something about jobs because i think all of this talk by romney and ann romney about how only thing women care about is the economy. let's say that's true. do you know that under barack obama's leadership we have seen more private sector jobs created in the past three months than under george w. bush in eight years? >> yes. >> and mitt romney wants to take us back. so i can't even envision a romney presidency, but you're absolutely right. the supreme court is critical. everything that, you know, our constitution protects for us is at stake. >> let me bring in karen here. karen, i know that part of what president obama has done so beautifully is to make this argument that senator boxer is making there, the reproductive rights are economic rights, they are pocket book issues. >> that's absolutely right. i serve on the board of pro choice america. one of the things i know, the senator knows this, we found out about a year ago and gallup found it as women, ell, in

battleground states, high percent sage of women, access to abortion care is higher than the economy, higher than jobs because women understand, again, that if you don't have access to birth control, if you don't have access to abortion care, those are sort of gate issues to other things. that means -- they pacts your ability to work outside the home, to care for your family. and the president has -- >> one of the off-sided statistics is that women who seek abortions typically, or mostly actually already have a child. it's not that they don't know. it's that they do know sort of all the resources necessary. >> women know how much they pay for their contraception and they know if i have to pay for contraception, that's money not going into my family. women know if we go back to a time when just being a woman is a pre-existing condition, which would happen if we roll back the affordable care act, they know they're going to go back to paying more for their health care. that's money they're not using to help their parents who might be older or their kids who might be in college or just getting by day to day.

>> rebecca, i'm convinced that part of senator boxer was saying, the romneys keep saying, oh, don't think about these other issues. they're saying like, don't vote like a girl. go vote like a man. >> they are. they're trying to fell minize the issues. that minimizes them. there are all of those double-sided ads you saw a few weeks ago, those things you're hearing about mitt romney and contraception aren't right, but don't worry, we know it's not what you care about anyway, it's not important. why are you cutting a whole ad telling me the message is wrong if they aren't important? of course, part of what we've seen in the republican language, including the extreme stuff, the stuff about todd aiken, the or of scientifically and intellectually stuff, sandra fluke and how much you pay for your birth control is about how much sex you're having, all of this inaccurate stuff that any woman knows has nothing to do with how she lives her life and takes care of herself reflects a

profound -- one of the things that has come through this language is a profound lack of thought toward what -- what women's lives are actually like, not just girl stuff, life stuff. how you take care of yourself. thus, how you take care of your family. how you get your job and go to your job and do your job and earn your money and spend it. they haven't -- that stuff clearly, the basics of female life in this country are not understood or considered by a lot of these guys we've heard talking. >> or cared about. >> that's part of why you see the minization of it and in a sense push women from away from it by not being so girly. >> if there's an agenda item or two agenda items that women should be thinking about as they head to the polls on tuesday, what should those agenda items be? >> i think the over arching theme that the president talks about so beautifully, are we going to go forward with him or backwards with mitt romney? and that covers the whole

panaplea of issues. the economy, we don't want to go back to the days where we were losing 800,000 jobs a month and the banks count even lend. as a matter of fact, one republican senator said at the time, maybe we have to look at nationalizing the banks. that's how desperate things were then. and if you look at women's health, you've covered it really beautifully. it's an economic issue. it's a privacy issue. it's a trust issue. it's a respect issue. any issue you look at. it's are we going to go forward or are we going to go back? look at the issue of climate change and all the problems we're seeing now with the obvious storms of great intensity here. it's all on the line. so i say to women and men within the sound of my voice, vote, vote, vote. it's so critical. it's one of the most important elections of my lifetime and yours. >> thank you, senator boxer. you're right, the president is on the ballot but we are on the line. >> yes. >> i greatly appreciate that. senator barbara boxer in california, i appreciate you

joining us tonight. which when we come back we'll talk about what the senator was just queueing up for us there, paycheck and pocket book politics. women, things are changing around here. people really love snapshot from progressive, but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. with snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. you're not filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today.

welcome back to mhp. you're looking at the icon anything skating rink at rockefeller center, which is now democracy plaza. we're talking about why women matter in this election. if the economy is the major issue of this election, whether you're transgender man or woman, this election effects you. yesterday october's job numbers show 117,000 jobs added to the payroll. the women still make an average less than their male counter parts. this is quickly becoming in many ways a woman's economy.

a recent study shows a majority of american women are the primary breadwinners in their homes. and forecasters predict that by 2030 the majority of women will be out-earning men. so what does this so-called female dominated economy look like, how is it run by these male candidates? let's talk about this. if women are the primary breadwinners, what happens to women, matters to families. >> mitt romney has tried to connect with people. i'm a ceo. you're the ceo of my family, we can talk the same language. he hasn't given specifics. one troubling part with me is with regards to family medical leave. this is something, that, to be honest, democrats haven't tackled is that we know that women do not get paid medical leave in this country. 178 other countries do provide that. and even within those who do get that job protection that's unpaid, half of the folks aren't even covered under that because

you have to be working under a firm of a certain size and you have to be full time in is one of the core economic issues when we're talking about women because it doesn't mesh with our workforce. >> it feels to me awful like part of the why the whole union busing we have seen from republican governors is also a women's issue. it's often framed as a men's working on the -- but this is like the we don't have it nationally, it's only union who gets those kinds of rights for workers. >> absolutely. just as it's no coincidence that the first piece of legislation that president obama pushed through was the lily ledbetter act. working on issues of fair pay for women. it's no coincidence in the states -- 2010 was a hidden blessing. when senator boxer says she can't imagine a romney world. you don't have to imagine it. the pea party, n-- tea party bu state leveloff had governors go after union rights and they specifically target teachers,

which is a female-dominate prod fegs. and they carve out, specifically, police officers and firefighters as they did in wisconsin where they protect the male union workers and go right after teachers. >> when you look at the chart about sort of initially it was men who were hit, but in the recovery, women have been recovering more slowly. and that is primarily because of the loss of public sector jobs in republican states around things like teachers. >> remember that it's for many middle class families it is because the woman works. it's her salary that keeps them in the middle class. when romney wants to have the conversation about the economy and he wants to have this conversation about how you manage your family, and then he starts, you know, not giving a lot of details but just enough details to know that in you're in the middle class you're probably going to get screwed. women hear, again, when we talk about medicare and the way they impact women, the way they impact a woman's economy. one of the most important things that ought to come out of this year and hopefully going into

the next political cycle, women have got to vote to our numbers. there's more of us than there are of them, ladies, right? we vote in higher numbers than they do. it is time that we take our power as political power and make sure -- we didn't even get to talk about things like access to capital of some of these other economic issues. >> we live across the whole electoral map. >> i want to talk specifically about when mitt romney was -- and barack obama were asked about pay -- the issue of pay equity in the final debate. if you remember part of the answer that mitt romney got the most attention for was women but the very telling part about how he views how women work in the world was that he explained very warmly that really women's priorities when they get in the workplace is to be able do leave at 5:00 to make dinner for their family. you could feel american women -- barack obama had just referred to them as breadwinners which i was were pleased about and talked about the holistic

connection between pell grants and their well-being and participation in the workforce. mitt romney was talking about the major concern of women in the workplace is how to get home at 5:00 to get home to cook dinner. you could feel the united states citizens going what? >> what i loved about that, oh, yeah, when i was first governor -- dude, you were like 50 when you were first governor. it took you that long to realize what was going on with women? >> in all the years when you had a private business you were not doing that. >> he didn't know enough women to a point to the positions that he needed to fill. >> women really don't want to work in these positions. we've got to get a binder full of them to not figure it out. it's not that i don't want to go home to cook but it's missing what women's lives look like. speaking of which let's talk about the number of women run for congress this year. it is higher than ever before. and if you want some people in washington who know what women's lives look like, send some women to washington. ♪

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admit it, at some point we've all said it, that size doesn't matter. but, but, it sure does. especially when it comes to the number of women in elected office. 17 women currently serve as u.s. senators. 73 out of 435 is the number of women who are members of the u.s. house of representatives. in total, that means that roughly 17% of the 535 seats in the 112th congress are occupied by women. if women want to change that balance, they're going to have to run for office. this year 18 women are run for the senate. that's breaking the record of 14 set in 2010. on the house said, 163 women could win seats.

the most since 2004 when 141 women made bids. so, could this be the new year of the woman? is that possible? >> again, i think this is another hidden blessing of 2010. i think when women -- i know my daughter viewed the obsession, almost the obsession of women's health, particularly a lot of young women up and so did the sandra floouk situation where we're see that just men, all of these men telling women what to do and telling women how to live their lives and what's best for them and what rape really is. i think it did wake a lot of women up. question is, will women vote for women. that's always been an issue in electoral politics. >> i think, oh, you know, what we need is women and particularly women of color. then i think take nicky haley, carol martinez, jan brewer, right, these are women who are governors. if you think of a woman president you have to ask how many women governors are there because those are the kind of people you elect to become president. it makes me pause on having a woman. >> in 2010 we saw an overall

decrease of women in congress, but we saw a regard number of republican women across the board get elected. so that's -- so we're seeing this increasing republican women. that being said and looking at the numbers who are running, democratic women are going to make a comeback. let me be a bit of a debbie downer. i look at the numbers throughout the years and we're stuck at 18%, 19% of congress. we're 50% of the population. at the state level we're still at 24%. you know, when is that big break. in the '70s and '80s we saw that break going from the low single digits into the 20s. when are we going to get into the 40s? >> a lot of those we need to stay in the pipeline, run for senate, running for the a.g., a we have a great woman run for attorney general which is a lot of times stepping stone to run for governor. you get that stayed wide experience biological weapon need to pay attention to the welcoming up through the ranks because we need that pipeline.

>> joy reid and i basically -- >> come on. >> i get frustrated because when i look at, for example, rutgers, women in politics, their women 2012, it's for women over 45. it's for the baby boomers. the list is for gub doorial races and congressional races. what about the school districts, what about the state? that's where the hole the. >> i tell you about the republicans that was smart in 1994, a lot of those candidates got washed out two years later. they went right back home and started running for local races. we've got to get people to do the same thing, to get involved in that local level. >> let me speak up in defense of the republican women, not individually and not their policy. i think one of the other things that matters, comes off of 2008 when we had such prominent women run for president and vice president. the image of what leadership looks like changes every time we elect a woman. the other thank i want to make an argument for, if you're looking at getting toward

jebder, you want to have women to vote against just as eagerly as you want women to vote for. you don't just want to be battling the white guys. >> i do think that matters. >> you know sarah palin the way that are most careful than most folks. both representing what your policy disagreements are. >> they're huge. >> yeah. but also pointing out that she performs something interesting by being a relatively young woman with a young family and saying, you know what, i'm going to run for this high office. >> more models of female leadership we see, old, young, different races, different -- >> very feminine models, too. >> all kinds of models. it will get easier for women to get into the pipeline. >> women when we become leaders we have to lead as women. we are more collaborative. we are more focused on how are we going to get something done. i got the tell you you guys will be shocked at how much craziness goes on in washington is about male ego. he didn't call me. i wasn't invited. i sat in the back of the plane. women would just be like, can we just sit down and figure this

out. >> my pension is bigger than yours. >> some of the women senators get together for dinner every once in a while because they need a break from all the testosterone and try to just sit around the table and say, okay, i need to get this bill through, how do i -- how can you help me? >> this is not a small point. in the same year we see a decrease in the number of women 30rk 30-year low, not a 30-year low but moving backward, we see the hyper partisanship. when we have seen folks coming together it was often moderate women or women who at least on certain kinds of issues were able to find common ground. >> sorry, actually, president obama is holding a campaign rally in iowa right now. let's take a listen to him. >> feels good. can everybody please give sandy a big round of applause for the great introduction? and give sandy's son a big round

of applause for serving our country. give it up for john mellencamp. it is wonderful to be here. you know, for the last several days, all of us have been focused on one of the worst storms in our lifetime what's been happening on the east coast. and i know i speak for the country when i say our thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost loved ones, people whose lives have been up ended. folks here in iowa know something about flooding. you remember what happened just a few years ago. the recovery process is tough, but when i visited new jersey i told folks there that everybody all across the country feels the same way, we are going to be with people every step of the way down the long hard road of recovery. we're going to help them rebuild. we're going to do it together. that's what americans do. >> so that is president obama.

he is there in iowa. i love my president but i can't believe he broke in on the women's chat. you know -- if he knew, he wouldn't have. but, right, that said. there he is talking apparently introduced by a woman named sandy, reminding us, of course, that sandy is the named storm that just hit here in the northeast. how big has this week been for the president in demonstrating start of what it means to -- we were just talking about working across lines. he and chris christie demonstrated that this week. >> not only that, he got to show that wonderful moment where he hugged the woman at the tarmac where he could show that personal empathy. one of the pieces of barack obama's brand that was so helpful to him in '08 was this idea that he could be bipartisan. that's always good for a president to respond well to a catastrophe. >> also that piece where, you know, of course, we had mitt romney saying, no more fema and we see exactly why we need it. thank you, too, rebecca. the rest are back for more.

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no women will be more impacted by tuesday's relates than hour young women. what we sow with our votes, in three days they will reap. joining the panel now to help represent generation next is julie zilinger, 19-year-old barnard university sophomore and author of "a little f'd up," feministed up. is there a moment that we have seen this war on women who priding an opportunity for young women to see relevance of and importance of feminism in their lives? i think it has. it might be the one upside of this entire campaign.

i think young women are coming to these conclusions. previously we will be under the misconception that our rights had been won for us and this fight was over. i think seeing some of these outrageous comments that politicians are making about our bodies and rights in general are really allowing us to wake up. >> we had a student who was sort of busy during one of the big fights around birth control and said, i woke up and all of a sudden contraception was gone. a little bit of an over statement but stunning to see that happening. is that the kind of thing that young women on college campuses are talking about head into on tuesday? >> it's definitely a concern. like i said, it's very shock for a lot of us who thought these rights were going to be there forever. i think we are incredibly passionate about doing everything we can to keep those rights. >> what about run for office? it was the last thing we were talking about is this need for a pipeli pipeline. do people -- i look at a young woman like you and say, okay, i got to tell you run for office at some point. think about that as your career. do young women look at our current politics and say, i am

never jump nag that shark's nest? >> i think there are some wary by a lot of the comments but i think especially looking at all of the comments these men have been making and how they are trying to describe what it's like to be a woman and trying to make these decisions for us is inspiring in a lot of ways. i think we want to get in there in order to make things right. >> if there is one sort of economic issue that you hear young women talking about, what is that economic issue? >> i think definitely student debt in terms of young women my age. it's something definitely on our mind and especially when you hear things like the fact that romney would cut pell grant funding, it's incredibly concerning to young women. >> absolutely. julie, i so appreciate you joining the panel to remind all of us that we're in this fight but we're often in the fight for you and with you, and you have a right to have your voices heard, as well. so thank you for joining us tonight. coming up, just who runs the world? ♪

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in 1776 abigail adams wrote to her husband who was in the midst of the continental congress, i desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. in 1851 sir truth, a black woman, who was born into slavery, had her children sold from her, and endured physical brutality asked, ain't i woman. in 1895, women surfed the leader susan b. anthony declaring, no man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent. when shirley chichl became the first woman to run for president 40 years ago this year, she argued, at present our country needs women's idealism and determination. perhaps more in politics than anywhere else. in 2009 justice sonia sotomayor

reminded us of the importance of having a wise latina on the america's highest court. these are the lessons of our american sheroes. these women cleared the path on which we now walk. they shoek when it was harder to speak. and we have a responsibility not to be silent. so, ladies, use your voice and vote. thank you to karen finney and to victoria, also, thank you to joy reid and to julie zeilinger for joining us this evening. thank you at home for watching this special edition of mhp. i'm going to see you again tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. you're not going to want to miss our segment on race talk. is it harder to re-elect a black president than it was to elect him in the first place? that's tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. now, stick around for martin bashir. he's up next. look, if you have copd like me,

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